XPost: alt.atheism, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, alt.politics.homosexuality
XPost: talk.politics.guns
From: purge-gays-globally@gmail.com
On 25 Jan 2022, All Trumpers Are Traitors
posted some news:ssqa9h$m1a9$5@news.freedyn.de:
> LGBTQ faggots are disgusting perverts.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida met with representatives of LGBTQ
groups Friday and offered an apology over discriminatory remarks made by
his former aide that sparked nationwide outrage and calls for the
government to ensure equal rights.
Former Kishida aide Masayoshi Arai’s comments to reporters earlier this
month that he wouldn’t want to live next to LGBTQ people and that citizens
would flee Japan if same-sex marriages were allowed prompted renewed
demands that the government adopt an anti-discrimination law.
Kishida said Arai’s remark was “deemed unjust discrimination and was
extremely inappropriate” and offered an apology to LGBTQ activists in
person: “I apologize sincerely for making all of you here and many other
people feel uncomfortable.”
He also appointed former Justice Minister Masako Mori on Friday as his
special aide in charge of promoting understanding for LGBTQ people and she
joined the meeting.
Kishida quickly fired Arai, his former aide, after he made the remarks.
But the prime minister’s own previous comments — including that allowing
same-sex marriage would change society and family values and must be
carefully considered — were also seen as an indication of his reluctance
to promote equal rights for LGBTQ people despite his pledge to create an
inclusive and diverse society.
Activists are now urging the government to enact anti-discrimination
legislation before Japan hosts a summit of the Group of Seven
industrialized nations in May in Hiroshima. Japan is the only G-7 member
that has not recognized same-sex marriage or enacted an anti-
discrimination law for LGBTQ people.
While surveys show growing public support for same-sex unions, government
efforts to support sexual diversity have been slow in Japan and legal
protections are still lacking for sexual minorities. Lesbian, gay,
bisexual and transgender people often face discrimination at school, work
and home in Japan, causing many to hide their sexual identities.
Campaigns for equal rights for LGBTQ people have been stonewalled
especially by conservatives in Kishida’s governing Liberal Democratic
Party. An attempt to enact an equality awareness promotion law ahead of
the 2021 Tokyo Olympics was quashed by the party.
Amid the criticisms over the discriminatory remarks, Kishida has
instructed his governing party to start preparing legislation to promote
more understanding of sexual minorities, but ultra-conservatives in the
party have already shown resistance. Activists say mere awareness
promotion is not enough.
Gon Matsunaka, head of the Pride House Tokyo, told reporters after the
meeting that Kishida said he hoped to approach the issue step by step and
that “We expressed our wish to have more opinions from the (LGBTQ)
community absorbed and our stories heard.”
Yuichi Kamiya, executive director of the Japan Alliance for LGBT
Legislation, said he expected a move toward equal rights to “drastically
accelerate.”
More than 200 local municipalities, including Tokyo, have introduced
partnership certificates for same-sex couples, allowing them to rent
apartments and sign documents in medical emergencies and for inheritance.
But the certificates are not legally binding and same-sex couples are
often barred from hospital visits and accessing other services available
to married couples.
During the meeting Friday, Kishida sought views from LGBTQ
representatives, saying that further effort is needed “to achieve a
diverse society where everyone respects each other’s human rights and
dignity and can live a fulfilling life.”
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
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